Welcome to the Winobloggers webpage! Students and professors from different universities meet to discuss their findings on Winogradsky columns they constructed!
We learn how to formulate hypotheses, observe, comment, ask and reply to questions related to our scientific experiments.

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Wednesday, 17 May 2017

UCA_E7-8_1

WINOGRADSKY COLUMN (first day)

The purpose of this practice is to observe the color change and the increase of microorganisms over time in a medium created by ourselves with the reactives elements mentioned above.

We introduce the same mixture of the same quantity into two different tubes. One of them will be exposed to light and the other will not.

Then, we will explain why we have added each of the aforementioned compounds:

The sucrose is added to bring carbon to the medium as every living thing needs a source from which it can obtain it.

CaSO4 provides sulfur to the medium. It will allow energy-capturing bacteria to grow through the reduction of this.

With the addition of K3PO4 we are contributing with phosphorus to the medium, which is used by microorganisms for their metabolism and it is an essential macronutrient for the growth and development of living beings.

We added NaCl to have a more saline medium than we had originally, and thus favor the growth of halophilic bacteria.

In this image we can observe the state of our tubes immediately after the deposition of the mixture in them and therefore they present a homogeneous and compact color throughout the column.

The tube that is in contact with the sun has a different development than the one that is not.

Over time, we will see different colors and changes in our column due to the growth of microorganisms. These variations can be seen because each bacteria will grow under the conditions that are most favorable to them along the column.